Light In Darkness

Full Moon

Anyone catch the particularly full moon last night? It's as close to Earth as possible in its elliptical orbit. The naked eye can easily detect that it's also much brighter. Tonight you can see it again so go take a look if you can.

Solar Chaos?

A Belgian astronomical institute (KSB) issued a warning that the sun had produced an extreme large solar flare that is heading our way. The data is based on the findings of the Belgian Proba-2 satellite. The geo-magnetic storm could possible interfere with GPS signals, cellphones and air traffic control systems. Also satellites and radio communications can expect interference and possibly malfunctions. Car drivers are also warned that there TomTom's can give faulty readings although its expected this will stay within a 10 meter deviation. Nothing on the NASA website (yet). The solar material is expected to reach us on thursday, the 17th of February. More information here.

Milky Way Shadow At Loch Ard Gorge

Wow, what a shot. Conditions have to be just right and the camera needs long exposure time but then you really get something.

The Big Repeat

Been thinking about the Big Bang theory this week and toying with a particular concept in my mind. The Big Bang is the current theory of how the Universe originated. The Universe was born out of an incredible dense singularity and expanded outwards over time. There have been theories about how the Universe will end. First there was the Big Crunch, it basically states that the Universe will cease to expand and that gravity will take over and will pull all matter back to a singularity, a collapse if you will. This theory doesn't seems to be very likely at this point because science has detected that galaxies are accelerating away from each other at an increasing rate. The next theory regarding the end of the Universe is called the Big Freeze. The Universe will continue to expand until all galaxies become isolated and all the stars burn up their fuel until there's no visible light. The latest theory is called the Big Rip. The Universe will continue to expand and accelerate until it rips itself apart at the (sub) atomic level.

I'm thinking more about a variant of the Big Bounce. The Big Bounce is the theory of an oscillating Universe, it expands and then contracts - expands and then contracts. Multiple Big Bangs if you will. At this moment in time, the singularity which caused the Big Bang might still be there at the center of our Universe. If we were to have a spaceship capable of faster than light and we would travel to the center of the Universe, what would we find? Nothing? Or a singularity charging itself for the next Big Bang? I present to you the Big Repeat. Our current expanding Universe will be supplemented by yet another Big Bang originating from the singularity at the center of our Universe. Waves of energy and matter will continue to spread out from the center like single drops of water from a leaking tap in a reservoir.
Just having some fun. :-)

Supernova

A NASA image of the debris of an exploded star, known as supernova taken from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Astronomers who have long used supernovas as cosmic mile markers to help measure the expansion of the universe now have an answer to the nagging question of what sparks the massive stellar explosions. (AFP/NASA/File) Main article here.

Strange Space Object Captured By Hubble

Read the Sun article here. Looks like a comet but it is thought to be an asteroid, but normally asteroids don't have a (vapor) trail. Fascinating.

Star Sizes

NASA's Constellation Program: Back To The 60s and 70s

How does NASA plans to reach the Moon again and even Mars? You can forget about Star Trek type ion engines or any of the other stuff you see in sci-fi shows. No new ramjets X-33 Venture-star like vehicles. No, it's back to the 60s and 70s, man.

What a sight for sore eyes. Basicly what they did was combine elements from the Apollo and Shuttle missions to go into the 21th century. Solid rocket booster here, Saturn top section there. 5 year old kids with NASA lego pieces could have come up with this design. A person can argue that NASA sticks to what it knows and what has been proven to work, but come on. NASA plays it safe, you can make a case for that but at this rate of modernization we Earthlings will reach the nearest star in our Galaxy (Alpha Centauri 4 lightyears away) in about a 1000 years.

The Altair Lunar Lander, or as I like to say 'two tanks in a cheap frame for the price of one'. What a piece of crap. Will NASA install a 16 bit CPU in the lander for nostalgia sake as well? Geesh. I think NASA should quit the program immediately and sack the designers on the grounds of poor imagination.